The contradicted nation: autobiographies of enslaved people and abolitionism in the United States, 19th century

Abstract

From autobiographical documents written by black women and men enslaved between the end of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, especially in the United States, this article proposes an approach to the various meanings of freedom within slavery societies in the Atlantic world. To this end, it focuses on abolitionist discourses and ideologies; the political resignifications of the nation; and the role of faith and Christian theology in a context of intense conflict in which slavery, as an institution, occupied the epicenter of the debate. The article also seeks to broaden the considerations on the public life of authors and authors of autobiographies, already well known in certain historiographical cultures, although they remain under the scrutiny of Brazilian historians. Most of these people acted strongly in the abolitionist movement, held congresses and lectures in the United States and Europe, and were involved in the warmest parliamentary debates of the time. Thus, understanding their political and public trajectories is also a way of understanding how the intricate relations between whites and blacks competed and joined the process of building the American nation; as well as the work of the enslaved in the context of the breakdown of the slave system and its struggles for the consolidation of the condition of freedom.